1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a method for an electronic device to process a beacon, and an electronic device thereof, and more specifically to a method for executing a function based on a received beacon signal.
2. Description of the Related Art
Beacon wireless communication technology has been proposed as a replacement for Near Field Communication (NFC) as a short-range wireless communication technology. For example, a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacon that utilizes BLE has been commonly used in various fields, including marketing, purchasing, and automatic check-in, in addition to providing location information.
NFC has an effective communication range from approximately 4 cm to 20 cm, whereas the BLE beacon has an extended effective communication range from approximately 5 cm to 50 m. While, NFC requires each mobile communication terminal involved in NFC communications to install a separate chip, the BLE beacon is able to provide short-range wireless communication using a beacon when a terminal merely has a BLE recognition function Therefore, use of a BLE beacon is more economical than NFC. BLE beacons are also capable of providing wireless communication services even in a broad indoor space.
Herein a “mobile communication terminal” may be any of various types of electronic devices, such as a smart phone, a tablet Personal Computer (PC), or the like, and may transmit and/or receive a beacon signal, when a beacon application program is executed, or when a predetermined icon provided from the beacon application program is selected by a user.
For example, when a mobile communication terminal receives a beacon signal from a predetermined terminal (e.g., a beacon transmitter) installed in a place, the mobile communication terminal may extract a beacon identifier (i.e., identification information of the beacon signal), transmit the beacon identifier to a server of a remote place, receive location information corresponding to the beacon identifier from the server, and display the location information on a display screen.
TA beacon identifier is a unique identifier of a predetermined terminal that transmits the beacon signal, and the location information may be a latitude and a longitude corresponding to a location where the predetermined terminal is installed. The mobile communication terminal transmits a beacon identifier to the server every time a beacon signal is received, and repeatedly and continuously executes reception of corresponding location information from the server. Thus, communication traffic between the mobile communication terminal and the server is frequently generated.
In addition, a long amount of time may pass before the mobile terminal displays the location information. More specifically, during the process in which the mobile communication terminal transmits the beacon identifier to the server, a location of a user who uses the mobile communication terminal may be revealed. A revelation of such information may be a violation of privacy.
A geo-fence is a compound word that is formed from the term ‘Geo’, which is a prefix having a meaning that refers to Earth, soil, or the like, and ‘fence’, which refers to an enclosure. The dictionary definition is a virtual perimeter for a real-world geographic area.
The geo-fence may be generated arbitrarily by necessity (for example, to distribute promotion materials within a radius of 100 m based on a predetermined store), and a predetermined district may act as the geo-fence (e.g., a school zone around an elementary school, etc.).
A geo-fence may be utilized to provide location-based advertisements. For example, a real estate company that owns hundreds of shopping centers in the U.S. provides a service in which 27 open-air malls transmit advertisement information through a text message using a portable phone.